Emma Glaysher, a second year diagnostic student at University of Liverpool, reports on her experiences at Hull TA's open day for health professionals.
A groups of us from my university travelled by coach for an open day with the Territorial Army.
When we arrived at the base there were lots of displays showing us what the TA do. Various healthcare professionals were present, including radiographers, radiotherapists, medical students and GPs.
We were divided into groups and given a team leader who was a member of the TA team. Our leader was a radiographer herself.
The first activity was a series of six different obstacle courses. We had to decide between our team how to get ourselves across the obstacles in a short amount of time.
It was interesting to see who was able to apply their ideas and who was listening to instructions. Bearing in mind that there is a time limit and obviously if it were for real, there would be more importance to get it right.
After this we were taken to the field hospital which was absolutely amazing.
The field hospital was set up just the same as they are in the army
bases; with A&E, an x-ray department, theatre and intensive care.
Before entering the field hospital itself, we went to the make-up department. A man was being transformed to look as though he had been in a bomb blast.
There were prosthetic limbs that had been made to look as though they had been blown off and gun shots wounds. The man was going to be made up to look like an army casualty then taken in an ambulance to the field hospital so that the TA members could get a feel of what it is like out in a real field hospital.
This was interesting but quite shocking when we realised that the man who was being made up to look like a casualty was actually an ex soldier who had his leg and arm blasted off in a warzone.
The man had no right leg or arm in real life and a false bloodied leg had been placed upon the stretcher with him the same as it had done seven years earlier when this happened to him for real. At this point the grim reality of the war hit us and we were quite shocked.
The man himself did not seem bothered though. We asked him if this reinactment brought back bad memories for him but he said it didn’t as he had totally accepted that he had lost his limbs as part of his service to the British Army. It was very humbling.
We were then taken to meeting room where we had presentations from the TA members who had visited Basra and Afghanistan. A nurse and a radiographer showed us photographs of their experiences in the field hospitals there.
Some of the casualties there were suffering from injuries that we as student radiographers would never ever see in normal clinic settings.
Overall it was an amazing day and if you can get the chance to go on a TA open day then do so.
Join now
